Guide to Customizing Security Design for Specific Facilities

While the majority of essential building features must be designed to meet strict local codes and national standards, there are no equivalent "code-compliance" design guidelines for security controls. The third course in our 4-part Security Practices & Engineering Concept series covers the best practices involved in customizing security design to the specific and unique requirements of public facilities. Developed by an electronic detection and surveillance systems expert with decades of experience, this course details how to customize the design of security systems to comply with the regulations for public and municipal facilities. Most importantly, this PDH course outlines why it's essential for system designers to avoid the cookie-cutter approach that's often used in the selection of other building operating systems (e.g. HVAC and fire alarm systems).

Security Design 101

Security systems have traditionally been developed without code restrictions, rules or standards. As a result, the growing security design industry continues to attract manufacturers who rarely provide devices that have been tested in a laboratory before installing it on the customer’s walls and entrance doors. Many building managers and security design engineers have relied on non-technically trained salesmen to recommend systems that are often inappropriate for a particular facility and are frequently incorrectly installed and, unfortunately, rarely properly maintained. The security industry has grown without restrictions and with little input from the engineering community. The following different types of facilities are just a few examples of buildings that require customized security designs.

• Museums
• Hotels
• Banks
• Schools
• Hospitals

Because of the lack of uniformity in security design, the tendency to create overly complicated systems, and ones that are unsuitable for facility's specific design requirements, is pervasive. This has lead to the development of fortress-like environments that can alienate the very public that the facility was initially built to serve. As such, engineers have increasingly been challenged with determining the most critical areas of security vulnerability found in different type facilities. Since 9/11, the traditional approach to security design, which seemingly solved all security and safety problems, is no longer considered a sustainable or practical approach. This course examines why the design engineer can no longer seek a "one-size-fits-all" solution to every security systems. Hospitals, for example, are concerned about infant abduction, museums are worried about “snatch and flee” painting thefts, schools are aware, more than ever, of mass murder, hospitals of infant abduction…etc. Each possible situation must be recognized independently and each building should be treated as a unique facility. This course is designed to address these unique considerations in addition to providing system-specific security design considerations backed by real-life case studies.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this online PDH course, you'll be able to:

• Identify the methods that museums use to protect paintings during business/visiting hours.
• Describe the causes and factors in which the largest art theft in history took place even with a fool-proof intrusion system
• Gain an understanding of why the vast majority of hotels are indifference to security controls until after a disaster occurs
• Understand why armed robberies in a bank are not of particular concern because the loss is negligible
• Determine the methods used in elementary schools to prevent intrusion and even mass killings
• Understand the legal requirements for locking school fire exit doors from both sides in order to meet compliance with national fire codes
• Discuss the evolution of anti-infant abduction systems in nursery wards
• Recommend suggestions for protecting an open environment in the different types of healthcare facilities

Security Practices & Engineering Concepts Series

The entire 4-part series, Security Practices & Engineering Concepts, examines the history and development of leading-edge security systems. The courses in this PDH series include:

1. Motion Detection Technology: How It Works
2. Locking Arrangements & Code Compliance For Engineers
3. Customizing Security Design
4. Biometric Identification Features & Principles for Engineers